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Chapter 2: Third Vision, that of the Surveyor 

In a vision, the prophet sees a surveyor with a measuring line going to
measure Jerusalem. An interpreting angel told Zechariah to tell the surveyor that Jerusalem would be a city without walls, because of the great number of people in it. But the Lord said He would be a wall of fire for it, and its glory within.

Then the Lord encouraged those who have not yet left Babylon to leave
it. He added a sentence, verse. 8, that is not very clear in the Hebrew. The literal wording would be: For the Lord of Hosts after kabod sent me against the nations, the ones who plundered you - whoever plunders you touches the
apple of his eye. I will definitely raise my hand against them. Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me." (To provide context, we continued into verse 9).

There are four problem spots in this passage. The most difficult is
Hebrew kabod, which commonly means glory, but the etymological meaning is heaviness. So it could refer to the affliction of God's people, which would fit with the context we gave above.

Also we have the strange pronouns, me used twice, his once. We ask who is the person meant in the me? It could be the prophet himself. Some have wondered if Zechariah refers to the Messiah, for in the later chapters he
will speak much of the Messiah, and not always with full clarity. We have
some strange uses of pronouns later on, in Zech 12.10: "They shall look upon me who they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as for his only son." We will take it up in detail later. We will suggest that the me is spoken by the Messiah, who is pierced in the crucifixion, and the him still refers to the same Messiah, in a strange shift of pronouns, so strange that most versions change the me to him. 

As to "the apple of his eye", it would refer to God's eye, what is dear
to Him (the expression, apple of eye, is found only here in all the Old
Testament). We would expect my here, but this is another strange shift of pronouns. (Incidentally if one reads the works of St. Teresa of Avila in her original Spanish, pronoun shifts are not unusual). 

Our net result on verse 8: God will raise his hand, after they have been
afflicted, against those who hurt Israel, the apple of His eye. 

 Zechariah continues: Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion, the Lord says: "I am coming, and I will live among you." This easily means that God Himself in person is coming - which happened in the person of the messiah. We recall the remarkable uses of I in Ezekiel 34.11 and Jeremiah 23.3 and 30.11, which when joined to the el gibbor of Isaiah 7.14 at least can be taken as a promise that God Himself will come in person, in the Messiah. 

Then: Many nations will join themselves to you. The Jews must have taken this to mean other nations would become Jews. We saw this idea in commenting on Isaiah 2. The same comments apply here. 

Then Zechariah continues: the Lord will inherit Judah and again choose
Jerusalem. - In what sense? In Romans 11, in the image of the two olive
trees, we see that gentiles become part of the original people of God. We saw that many prophecies, such as Isaiah 2 indicated that. We saw that Ephesians 3.6 says the gentiles will be fellow heirs. So the object of God's special love is to be not just Israel, but all God's people, made into one with Israel, for Jesus has broken the wall of separation, as Ephesians 2.13-17 said.

There is now just one people of God, consisting of gentiles and Jews who
have accepted God's Messiah. Those who reject Him are not part of that
people, they are the branches fallen from the tame olive tree of which Romans 11 spoke.

Further light on this comes from Romans 9:25-16 where St. Paul quotes the prophet Hosea: "Those who were not my people, I will call my people" In the original setting, Hosea was saying that the Jews, because of their sins, brought on the Babylonian exile, and had fallen out of the People of God. But after their repentance, God would gladly take them back: "Those who were not my People I will call my People. In the original words of Hosea 2:23: "I will say to lo ammi [not my people]: "You are my people." For they had ceased being God's people, and had remained many days (Hosea 3:4) "without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim," but when they repented, He would gladly say to them the words just cited: "You are now my people again". 

But even when they become His people again, they must not forget God has joined gentiles to them, if the gentiles accept their Messiah. They are no longer alone.